Article:		What Is Darwin (and How It Powers Mac OS X)
Subject:		Tweaking kernel
Date:		2005-09-28 22:03:32
From:		John_Fieber
Response to: Tweaking kernel
The point of kernel extensions in the I/O Kit is to allow Mac OS X's kernel to dynamically load device drivers as needed when booting. Linux can't do this. Um, Linux has had dynamically loadable kernel modules for a long time. So has FreeBSD. So has Solaris and about every other contemporary Unix I can think of.

Showing messages 1 through 2 of 2.

• Tweaking kernel
  2005-09-29 05:18:48  Mafretete [View]
  
  
  The problem with Linux is that you cannot ship a precompiled kernel module - it would not work with a slightly different kernel. On Mac OS X, most kernel extensions for OS X 10.3 still work in OS X 10.4, even though 10.4's kernel is much newer.
• Tweaking kernel
  2005-09-30 19:30:37  thebluesgnr [View]
  
  
  But you don't have to build a new kernel if the module is linked against a different version, just rebuild the module, which is usually a very simple and easy thing to do.